THE MIGHTY F-35 LOBBY: The Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program has a sprawling lobbying presence in Washington to match. It’s no surprise that Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-35 fighter jet, has committed plenty of its resources to bolstering the program. But advocates of the F-35 on Capitol Hill extend far beyond Lockheed and include its suppliers, a labor union and groups that support military bases.

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At least 15 entities reported lobbying last quarter on issues involving the F-35 fighter jet, one of the Pentagon’s most controversial and closely watched programs. Lockheed boasts an in-house team of more than a dozen lobbyists — led by former Army Undersecretary Greg Dahlberg — who advocate for the company’s many programs, from the F-35 to the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship. Other companies with a stake in the F-35 program — including BAE Systems, United Technologies, Rockwell Collins and Northrop Grumman — also lobby on behalf of the fighter jet.

The F-35’s supporters, though, extend beyond defense contractors. For instance, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a labor union representing hundreds of thousands of workers, has pushed for more F-35 funding next fiscal year. And the F-35 has also spurred opposition lobbying. The Project On Government Oversight, a watchdog organization, has sought to raise awareness of the program’s problems, from massive cost increases to schedule delays. “I’ve gone into congressional offices when Lockheed representatives are coming out, and vice versa,” said Ethan Rosenkranz, a POGO national security policy analyst.

DRIVING THE DEFENSE WEEK — OBAMA TO HUDDLE WEDNESDAY WITH COMBATANT COMMANDERS AT THE PENTAGON: President Barack Obama heads to the Pentagon on Wednesday to meet with combatant commanders and other national security officials to discuss the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The meeting comes as several news outlets are coming to the same conclusion about the fight against ISIL: U.S.-led airstrikes are disrupting the group but won’t be enough to defeat it.

The Wall Street Journal: “Islamic State appears to have largely withstood the airstrikes so far and with scant pressure on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the militants have given up little of the territory they captured before the campaign began. … They also have maintained much of their financing and recruiting capability and continued to crack down on local populations, anti-regime activists and rebels in Syria said.” http://on.wsj.com/1urK9di

MORE ISIL HEADLINES:

— MILITANTS USING U.S. AMMO, via C.J. Chivers of The New York Times: “The jihadist group Islamic State has been using ammunition from the United States and other countries that have been supporting the regional security forces fighting the group, according to new field data gathered by a private arms-tracking organization. The data, part of a larger sample of captured arms and cartridges in Syria and Iraq, carries an implicit warning for policy makers and advocates of intervention. It suggests that ammunition transferred into Syria and Iraq to help stabilize governments has instead passed from the governments to the jihadists.” http://nyti.ms/1pG8Qxj

— PARENTS OF U.S. CAPTIVE PLEAD FOR HIS LIFE, via The Associated Press: “An Indiana aid worker threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group said in a June letter that he's afraid to die and is saddened by the pain his captivity must be causing his family, his parents said Sunday. In a statement released to media, Ed and Paula Kassig said their 26-year-old son, Abdul-Rahman Kassig, thanked them for their strength and commitment. And he appeared to try to prepare them for his death. … The Kassigs pleaded for their son's freedom in a video statement released Saturday.” http://nyti.ms/1vIsGNh

— DOD LAUNCHES ISIL AIRSTRIKE WEBSITE: The Pentagon has announced a new website detailing its military efforts against ISIL. It comes as the Pentagon considers giving the anti-ISIL operation an official name — but, for now, “Targeted Operations Against ISIL Terrorists” will have to do. Check out the website here: www.defense.gov/counter-isil

HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we’re wishing a happy birthday to House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Email us at awright@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @ abwrig and @ morningdefense

POLITICO’s James Hohmann has a preview: “Jindal will call Monday for the United States to spend at least 4 percent of its gross domestic product on the military going forward. The Republican is staking out territory as one of the most hawkish 2016 Republican presidential candidates in a morning speech at the American Enterprise Institute and then a Tuesday trip to the Citadel in South Carolina, the first Southern state that will hold a primary.' http://politi.co/1CNOoT2

— Morning D flashback: During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney also called for 4 percent of GDP to be spent on defense — leading to attacks from Obama that Romney would add $2 trillion in new defense spending over the next decade that the military hadn’t requested. PolitiFact took a look at the Obama campaign’s math and declared the $2 trillion figure to be “true." http://bit.ly/1uqLalZ

BIDEN APOLOGIZES … AGAIN, via Roy Gutman of McClatchy: “Vice President Joe Biden apologized to the United Arab Emirates Sunday for charging that the oil-rich ally had been supporting al Qaida and other jihadi groups in Syria's internal war, his second apology in as many days to a key participant in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State extremists. … But his apology, one day after expressing similar regrets to Turkey, left open whether the Emirates had supported the rise of al Qaida during the early stages of the war in Syria.” http://bit.ly/1rcTsYx

ISIL WAR ADDS AN NDAA HURDLE. POLITICO’s Jeremy Herb has the story: “The push for a war vote in Congress during the lame-duck session is generating even more uncertainty about approving the annual defense authorization bill. … A potential authorization vote on U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Syria, which lawmakers from both parties are pushing to address when Congress returns in November, could prove a far larger obstacle [than in years past].

“Congressional leaders in both chambers already disagree on the timing [of a war authorization vote]: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has suggested bringing up the issue during the lame-duck session, while House Speaker John Boehner says the vote should wait until a new Congress arrives in January. If Reid gets his way, the $500 billion Pentagon policy bill could become the vehicle for the war vote, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said last week. If Congress instead follows Boehner’s recommendation, the defense bill might still face a complex path as some senators would likely try to propose amendments to force a war vote.” More here: http://politico.pro/1vF9KPi

SUNDAY SHOWS RECAP, via POLITICO’s Herb and Zachary Warmbrodt:

— Former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who has said he’s considering a run for president in 2016 as a Democrat, declared on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the United States hasn't articulated a clear foreign policy “basically since the end of the Cold War.” http://politi.co/1uO1XAT

— Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the No. 2 Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” the United States doesn't need to deploy ground combat troops against ISIL and that “effective Iraqi military forces on the ground will probably be more effective than a short-term introduction of American forces." http://politi.co/1uO2x1x

— Also on "State of the Union," Sen. Lindsey Graham said the opposite: that ISIL can't be defeated without U.S. troops on the ground. “This mythical Arab army we’re trying to get up to go in on the ground in Syria will need a lot of American hand-holding,” the South Carolina Republican said. http://politi.co/1s08FTf

— And on CBS's "Face the Nation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his relationship with Obama as "quite good." http://politi.co/ZkkA1K

INDUSTRY INTEL — ARMY PICKS DESIGNS FOR JOINT MULTI-ROLE ROTORCRAFT COMPETITION, via Dave Majumdar of USNI News: “The U.S. Army has picked designs from Bell Helicopter and a Sikorsky/Boeing team to continue development of Joint Multi-Role (JMR) high-speed rotorcraft designs. ‘These teams will build technology demonstration (TD) aircraft with flight tests starting in 2017,’ the Army said in a statement released to USNI News on Friday.

“The two prototype aircraft will be built and flown as part of the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator Air Vehicle effort — which will inform the Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program to replace the long-serving Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64E Apache. The FVL program will also inform the US Navy’s MH-XX program to replace the MH-60 Seahawk. … Two other teams led by Karem Aircraft and AVX Aircraft were not selected for continued development, but the service is still interested in their technologies." http://bit.ly/1oHHjv0

MAKING MOVES

— CLARKE TAKES OVER 82nd AIRBORNE DIVISION: Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno has selected Brig. Gen. Richard Clarke to take over the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, specializing in parachute landing operations. Clarke was the 74th commandant of cadets at West Point. Maj. Gen. John Nicholson relinquished command of the 82nd to Clarke on Oct. 3. Nicholson is getting a third star and heading to Izmir, Turkey, to become the NATO’s Allied Land Command commander.

— SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR AT DoD'S POW/MIA OFFICE IS OUT OF A JOB, via Megan McCloskey of ProPublica: “The longtime scientific director of the problem-ridden Pentagon agency charged with identifying the remains of service members missing from past wars is out of a job. At a recent Korean War family update meeting in Washington, Tom Holland announced he would soon be leaving as head of the laboratory at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or J-PAC. ‘You've heard about the reorganization, and I found out last week that I'm not a part of the reorganization,’ Holland told the group in August." http://bit.ly/1pM970K

DESSERT — OBAMA THANKS TROOPS DURING AIR FORCE-NAVY GAME: Over the weekend, the president released a video to thank U.S. troops for their sacrifice. The video aired on the American Forces Network during Saturday's Air Force-Navy football game and is posted on YouTube. “Once again, you're showing the world the best in American leadership,” Obama said. The video here: http://1.usa.gov/1CNxvrT

The Air Force Falcons, playing at home in Colorado, won the game, 30-21. The Denver Post has a recap: http://dpo.st/1BHjKZl

About The Author

Austin Wright is a senior defense reporter based at the Pentagon covering budget, policy and national security issues. He has been with POLITICO since 2011 and was previously a web producer and author of the widely read newsletter Morning Defense.

Before POLITICO, Wright worked for National Defense magazine, interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education and taught sixth-grade English at Kramer Middle School in Washington.

Wright hails from Richmond, Va., and graduated in 2009 from the College of William and Mary, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Flat Hat. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Leanne, and their dog, Kernel.